Ralphs Shopping in Downtown

Downtown Los Angeles resident Dawn Pentecost lives near the skyscrapers, museums and the other impressive symbols of a big urban center. But what’s badly missing, says the 41-year-old artist, is a mundane bit of suburbia: a chain supermarket.

“Living downtown is like living in the sticks,” said Pentecost, who has to travel miles from her loft for basic and affordable essentials. “It would be great to have a huge supermarket . . . with free parking.”

Pentecost may soon get her wish. Thanks to a surge in new central city apartments and a population that has almost doubled in the last decade, downtown Los Angeles is expected to finally land the full-service, conventional supermarket that has eluded the concerted efforts of civic and business leaders for more than 20 years.

Ralphs Grocery Co., which opened a downtown supermarket in San Diego in 1996, said it has stepped up its efforts in recent months to open a 55,000-square-foot downtown Los Angeles outlet. The company, which also operates Food 4 Less markets, said it has spoken to numerous property owners but has not yet identified a site.

“As soon as we find a location, we will negotiate a deal,” said company real estate manager Greg Lukosky. “The discussions have heated up based upon the residential growth.”

A new store would mark the return of Ralphs to downtown Los Angeles, where the chain began operations in 1873 with a grocery store at 6th and Spring streets. Ralphs has not operated a store in downtown since 1951.

Many consider the opening of a supermarket as important as the addition of such new downtown landmarks as Staples Center and Disney Hall, now under construction. A supermarket would signal that downtown is a viable residential community and would attract more people and service-related businesses, said Don Spivak, deputy administrator for the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency.

Although downtown’s new cultural amenities “are important to people, they don’t rank as high as fundamental amenities like supermarkets,” Spivak said. “It’s an amenity people normally expect to find.”

A large, conventional supermarket would simplify the life of many downtown residents and workers, who must now shuttle between ethnic markets, the produce-only Grand Central Market and a scattered number of tiny and often expensive liquor, convenience and drug stores. The lack of parking and limited hours force many to travel outside of downtown to suburban-style markets in nearby Boyle Heights or Silver Lake.

But a shortage of available space and relatively high land costs remain substantial hurdles to opening the typical 35,000-square-foot store suburbanites take for granted. Some have proposed including a supermarket as part of an office and residential development to make the whole project economically viable. Making it more difficult is the fact that the location would have to include convenient, free parking and a large loading dock.

Downtown boosters have been disappointed before by supermarket plans that never materialized. In 1992, for example, the company that once owned now-defunct Boys and Alpha Beta supermarket chains said it would open three downtown stores, including one under the historical Grand Central Market.

Real estate broker Irving Bonios, who is assisting Ralphs and also was involved in locating sites for Boys and Alpha Beta, said an economic recession and a wave of supermarket mergers foiled earlier attempts to open stores. Those efforts also were probably premature because downtown then lacked the approximately 15,000 residents industry analysts say are needed to sustain a supermarket.

U.S. census figures show that downtown’s population stood at 23,000 in 1990. However, nearly half of those people were homeless or lived in shelters and single-room occupancy hotels. Those living such a transient lifestyle are usually excluded from the surveys retailers use to determine the potential of an area to support a store.

But by 2000, the addition of several major apartment projects has boosted the number of downtown residents living outside of Skid Row to nearly 20,000, according to city estimates. More apartments are under construction or are in the final planning stage and are projected to increase the number of housing units by 55% to more than 18,000, according to a survey of the Los Angeles Downtown Center Business Improvement District. The South Park area near Staples Center has often been mentioned as a prime location for a supermarket since it remains less densely developed than other portions of the central city. Space for a supermarket may be set aside for a housing project contemplated atop Bunker Hill, according to real estate observers. The north end of downtown near Little Tokyo also has gained popularity given its proximity to the lofts being built in the Spring Street historical core.

“The emerging housing market has really made the difference,” said Carol E. Schatz, president of the Central City Assn.

Los Angeles has been slower than San Diego and other cities to develop a residential population large enough to attract supermarkets and other retailers, who cannot survive on daytime office workers alone.

In San Diego, 20,000 people live in a growing number of swank apartment buildings, townhouses and lofts. The full-time resident population plus 75,000 daytime office workers provides a solid base for the Ralphs market at 1st and G streets.

The 43,000-square-foot store, which is built into a former brick warehouse, has been adapted to its urban environment with underground parking, elevators and people-mover ramps. The merchandise has been tailored to serve the large number of professionals who live and work nearby. A popular item: fully prepared takeout meals.

“It’s one of our best stores in San Diego,” Ralphs spokesman Terry O’Neal said. “There’s no competition.”